Earth Climate Change Paper Essay

This article was written following an opinionated editorial that was published challenging the evidence of human-induced climate change. In this article there are numerous lines of evidence that the author claims leans toward the fact that global climate change is manmade. He states that carbon dioxide in our atmosphere has increased over the last 200 years. With this evidence compared to ice cores revealing direct measurements over the last 900 year, the increase in temperature stand outs immensely. The temperature increased during the Industrial Revolution, a time period in which humans released massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere through deforestation and the burning of large amounts of coal, gas, and oil. A second Reason that he states humans are the reason behind global climate changes is the polar ice caps melting.

The polar ice caps are melting at an alarming rate and will result in less than half of the Artic covered in ice by the time summer comes around. Also with the polar ice caps melting there is also the melting of glaciers. They are retreating at the highest rates ever documented. With the retreating of these glaciers is the depletion of the freshwater supply. The author rebuts the statements of those who believe climate change is natural by saying that the climate is warmer than other warm phase the Earth has been through. The reason the Earth is going through this period of abnormal warmth is due to the climate not having been exposed to the greenhouse gases previously. He states that the amount of heat that the sun provides has been decreasing since 1940 and that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been thrown off by human’s excess production of it.

The article is based on global climate change being a man-made event. In the first portion of this paper, existing evidence, mostly from earth and atmospheric sciences, on global climatic changes and the effect of human action is briefly reviewed. The author describes the term “Global Change” of having different meanings, some more general and others more restricted. Data that is shown in this article reflects the last post-glacial cycle of variations in air temperature and air carbon dioxide concentration in a time scale of 100,000 to 150,000 years, an increase in mean air temperature at the earth’s surface over the last 100 years, and summarizes carbon dioxide concentration measures obtained from the analysis of Antarctic ice cores and at the Mauna Loa Observatory. As described by the author, there are greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide, including methane, nitrous oxide, tropospheric ozone and chlorofluorocarbons.

To a large extent, the concentration of these greenhouse gases is due to increased burning of biomass or fossil fuel, and chemical waste from rapidly growing populations, including man. The rapid growth in human world population, its wasteful use of land and of natural resources, and waste from growing industrialization and traffic, are among the primary sources of the human-made global warming. These causes and effects are coincidental with several worldwide changes in human living conditions. These other aspects of global change relate to increasing stratospheric ozone depletion, acid deposition specifically in acid rain, loss of biodiversity, and a sharp increase in human world population. In conclusion of this paper, without suitable intervention, the greenhouse effect as described today will be amplified substantially due to growth in world population, resulting in still increasing rates of emission of organic and industrial waste and substances.

Quirin Schiermeier stated that at least 74 percent of the global warming occurring on earth is caused by man. During his research, he analyzed the massive increase in atmospheric Carbon Dioxide concentrations. He also stated that in the past 60 years the earth’s temperature has increased more than 0.5 degree Celsius. He stated that human are increasing the amount of fossil fuels and coal being burned. Schiermeier stated that the CO2 levels were not the ultimate culprit, that the rises in other greenhouse gases are playing a large role in the increasing temperatures on earth.

Schiermeier used the optimal fingerprint method to complete his research. This method was used to “compare observed patterns of surface air temperature over time with the modeled climate response to greenhouse gases, solar radiation and aerosols from volcanoes and other sources”. While claiming only one-quarter of the climate change can be natural he states that he is using a new “attribution” method when it comes to separating whether or not the changes are man or nature caused. He believes that the increase in CO2 have increased greatly since the pre-industrial period.

Texas suffered from a drought and a heat wave in 2011. Freedman stated that manmade global warming has “a probability of many extreme weather and climate events, making heat waves, droughts, and other events more likely to occur within the United States”. He stated that the drought that occurred in Texas also expanded across less than 48 states. The drought affected about 56 percent of the United States. Freedman then stated that the US had its warmest 12 month period and was the warmest year to date in 2011. From peer-reviewed reports the data shows that human activity is evident in the increase of global climate temperatures and other effects in the past.

He believes that the world will hit the 400 parts per million of Carbon Dioxide by the year 2016. He stated that the Arctic Circle experienced a record 86 straight days where the temperature did not drop below freezing. He later stated that while Texas is in a drought there are deadly floods occurring in Thailand. The study concluded that, due to manmade global warming, La Nina-related heat waves are now 20 times more likely to occur in Texas than they were 50 years ago. Article 1: Nature Influenced Event

“Continental drifts, mountain-building, changes in the Earth’s orbit, volcanic eruptions, and solar variability are all natural processes” says Singer. He also believes that the Sun is affecting fluctuations of solar irradiance, variability of UV portion of solar spectrum, and the variations in the solar wind that modulate the intensity of cosmic rays. He gathered his data from Proxy data which has now made it possible to detect the impact of the Sun on Earth. “Human activities are not influencing the global climate in a perceptible way.

Climate will continue to change, as it always has in the past, warming and cooling on different time scales and for different reasons, regardless of human action. I would also argue that—should it occur—a modest warming would be on the whole beneficial.” Singer argues that nothing the humans are doing at this point in time is really affecting the rate at which the earth is warming or not warming. Singer states that global warming is a problem, but it is a political one. He states the reaction that the government can doing something about climate can cause other problems that can affect the health and well-being or the human race.

Lindzen believes that the money spent on “research” is unneeded. Misperceptions coupled by sincere desire to “save the planet” are distracting people from what Mother Nature is telling us. He believes that the media immediately adopts an idea that is accepted by the public and brings them more money and popularity. He said that the computer models were not accurate in any way and therefore people believe the media and get scared. He states that when the skeptics began to get air time that it created controversy among the media and the opinions of the people following such media.

Scientists began to contest each other and began to prepare speech and other forms of rebuttal. One large problem with education and the media is the way that greenhouse gases are presented and taught at a young age, when in fact the process is far more complicated than the people care to understand. Lindzen claims that while global warming can become a crisis in the future, as a scientist, the human, plant, animal populations would have little to no difficulty adapting to the warmer temperatures and the affects to go along with it. He says that the people have a contorted view of what global warming is and how it really works within the earth.

Mandia believes that chemical weather can cause cooler climates and can also remove atmospheric carbon. Although volcanoes achieve the exact opposite effect, volcano magma contains carbon and therefore puts carbon back into the atmosphere. Volcanoes can cause a range of different effects the atmosphere and the climate including, gases into the atmosphere, ash into the air, and carbon increase. Volcanoes have the effects of all the human pollution in just one small eruption. Some volcanoes contribute far more than man could ever produce in affecting the atmosphere and the climate of the earth.

Mandia believes that the Earth is just going through a climate cycle as it has done multiple times before over the course of history. The Sun has a cycle of its own and that can contribute to the climate on Earth as well. Other aspects of the Earth such as the wobble, the tilt, and the rotation around the sun and its axis affect the global climate to some degree as well. Multiple natural forms like the oceans can also affect the Earth’s temperature. Aspects such as the oceans and the animals on earth can work to heat and cool the earth over an extended period of time and contribute to the overall climate of the earth.

“Six ice core from Kilimanjaro provide an approximately 11.7 thousand-year record of Holocene and environmental variability for eastern Africa” says Thompson. The ice cores suggest that the fluctuating lake levels in the cores record multiple droughts during the African Humid Period. The author is in short telling readers that during these thousands of years the Earth cooled and warmed to fill and dry these lakes. The author is trying to show that while the earth does warm it also cools typically with a pattern to go along with it and records to support these patterns. Earth has a cycle and every so often that cycle will start over and the temperatures will fluctuate making the temperature rise and fall. These ices cores are just a small part of what is happening all over the world at any given point in time. The earth’s climate effected very little if any at all by man and the activities that man partakes in on the earth. Man covers a very small portion of the earth and will never cover enough to majorly affect the climate of the Earth that can change the pattern that it is currently on.

My Opinion:

The Earth is not a constant in this universe and nothing is constant within that inconsistency. The climate of the Earth has always changed and will always continue to change. The climate of the earth is a very complex area of science and it is something that current scientists may never come to understand. Who is to say that there is an answer to the question that is Global Climate Change?

The climate of earth is not an easy topic to discuss even though it is constantly discussed all over the world. Nothing is ever constant in the science of global warming. Scientists are always changing their theories and models to fit the changing opinion that is climate change. Not one specific factor can be used to describe climate change but rather an abundance of theories and ideas that we might have about why the temperatures are changing the way that they are. Not one scientist can say that none of the research has been disproven by another scientist research in this area of science. Man consumes about 1 percent of the earth in total (Nature Article 4).

Man does burn fossil fuels and coal and other materials that release toxins into the air but one natural event in the world can mask almost every mistake that man has made in their entire existence. Man does create pollution without a doubt but not a single human being would be willing to give up their quality of life to completely end the burning of fuels and other harmful chemicals in the earth. Pollution increased during the industrial revolution and has been decreasing since then. Man isn’t perfect and never will be, but the effects that man has on climate change are minimal in comparison to the effects of nature.

Humans have no control over the volcanoes, earthquakes, animals, plants and any other events and biotic factors on earth. All of these things contribute to global warming in some way or another. One volcano eruption can release more toxins and cause more damage than most of what man has done in their entire existence (Nature Article 3). Other events can upset the pattern in which the earth rotates and that can lead to changes in the climate. Man can only help and hurt so much in their short existence on earth.

The earth will likely outlast any human that will walk on it. People are just going to make the most of what they have at hand and when we are gone a new beginning will occur just as it has done in the past of the present conditions to exist. Nothing is guaranteed in this place we call Earth and that will always continue to be the case. Man cannot change what nature has already set forth for the fate of the population. The earth has a plan and it will be carried out regardless of the influence that man tries to inflict on this plan. Nature has a course and it will run no matter what is put onto the earth and the damage that it inflicts on the earth. Man has little to any influence on the effects of the earth and all of the aspects within it, including climate change. Nothing that man has done or will do can affect the earth more than nature will. Nature holds great contributions to the human race and it is beyond anything that man can accomplish the only thing that can truly hurt nature is nature itself.

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